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Herrera Esteli Lancero

MattSRoss81

MattSRoss81

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May 4th was the NJ Cigar Festival. I suspected that the Herrera Esteli Lancero might debut there so I made it my business to get there early and went right to KMack and Willy at the DE booth when doors opened. While I was told that 3 boxes were available there, I was the first person at their booth and I only saw 1 box and I quickly grabbed it (and suddenly had many new friends!). When I talked to Willy about it, he hinted that it would be a "controlled release" in the sense that they take time to produce and have minimal rolleros/buncheros working on them so he expected that we would see boxes randomly showing up over the coming months.

With that said, I actually saw KMack yesterday and we discussed this and how many of his accounts are asking for the cigars. He said what people need to realize is that there are ~100 Herrera Esteli accounts and only 200 boxes in the initial shipment. These cigars will get there, but its going to take a while. I assume all of this is relatively common knowledge, but figured I'd throw it out there.

FWIW, we did a group review on the cigar at CF here, but my thoughts were:

I received samples from Drew Estate and also bought a box at the NJ Cigar Festival - I smoked 1 from each allotment for this review. The Herrera Esteli Lancero looks exactly like the other Herrera Estelis, but longer with a beautiful light brown wrapper with some obvious veins and seams. The pre-light draw is heavy on cedar with some leather, and a sniff of the foot gives some chocolate also. Initial draws once I light are much more powerful than the other sizes in the line with a lot of acute white pepper spice on the tongue and retrohale. The cedar is definitely there early along with a subtle sweetness like a butterscotch, but both are a bit overpowered by the strength and spice early in. When I spoke to Willy about this at NJ Cigar Festival, he gave me an indication that I was on to something as I described the smoking experience I was having. Burn is just about perfect and the draw is fantastic - better than most lanceros I can think of - giving off heaping amounts of smoke. As I enter the middle, having acknowledged that this vitola seems like a sharp departure from the flavor profile of the Herrera Estelis I've smoked previously, I sense that the strength and spice is about to scale back a bit. As the spice tones down, it seems like more of a cinnamon flavor to me. The cinnamon takes a back seat as the familiar Herrera Esteli flavors come up - cedar and nuttiness with a slight floral note. As I enter the final third, the sweetness is really ramping up and the cinnamon spice is returning - heavily on the retrohale - with a bit of cedar for good measure. There is no doubt in my mind that this size supplants the Corona and Lonsdale as my favorite vitola for this blend. I absolutely loved this cigar and consider it a box buy (which I'm glad I did).
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Senor Perfecto

Senor Perfecto

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MattSRoss81 said:
May 4th was the NJ Cigar Festival. I suspected that the Herrera Esteli Lancero might debut there so I made it my business to get there early and went right to KMack and Willy at the DE booth when doors opened. While I was told that 3 boxes were available there, I was the first person at their booth and I only saw 1 box and I quickly grabbed it (and suddenly had many new friends!). When I talked to Willy about it, he hinted that it would be a "controlled release" in the sense that they take time to produce and have minimal rolleros/buncheros working on them so he expected that we would see boxes randomly showing up over the coming months.

With that said, I actually saw KMack yesterday and we discussed this and how many of his accounts are asking for the cigars. He said what people need to realize is that there are ~100 Herrera Esteli accounts and only 200 boxes in the initial shipment. These cigars will get there, but its going to take a while. I assume all of this is relatively common knowledge, but figured I'd throw it out there.

FWIW, we did a group review on the cigar at CF here, but my thoughts were:

I received samples from Drew Estate and also bought a box at the NJ Cigar Festival - I smoked 1 from each allotment for this review. The Herrera Esteli Lancero looks exactly like the other Herrera Estelis, but longer with a beautiful light brown wrapper with some obvious veins and seams. The pre-light draw is heavy on cedar with some leather, and a sniff of the foot gives some chocolate also. Initial draws once I light are much more powerful than the other sizes in the line with a lot of acute white pepper spice on the tongue and retrohale. The cedar is definitely there early along with a subtle sweetness like a butterscotch, but both are a bit overpowered by the strength and spice early in. When I spoke to Willy about this at NJ Cigar Festival, he gave me an indication that I was on to something as I described the smoking experience I was having. Burn is just about perfect and the draw is fantastic - better than most lanceros I can think of - giving off heaping amounts of smoke. As I enter the middle, having acknowledged that this vitola seems like a sharp departure from the flavor profile of the Herrera Estelis I've smoked previously, I sense that the strength and spice is about to scale back a bit. As the spice tones down, it seems like more of a cinnamon flavor to me. The cinnamon takes a back seat as the familiar Herrera Esteli flavors come up - cedar and nuttiness with a slight floral note. As I enter the final third, the sweetness is really ramping up and the cinnamon spice is returning - heavily on the retrohale - with a bit of cedar for good measure. There is no doubt in my mind that this size supplants the Corona and Lonsdale as my favorite vitola for this blend. I absolutely loved this cigar and consider it a box buy (which I'm glad I did).
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info & review Matt -- looks like another HTF from DE. Ugh.
 
shadowcam

shadowcam

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Atlantic has them but its a two cigar limit. Make sure to open up an account and remain logged in. The displayed price will be lower.

Deadwood tobacco also shows that they have a box available. Never ordered from there so I can't comment on their inventory availability or business practices.
 
mmchugh84

mmchugh84

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shadowcam said:
Atlantic has them but its a two cigar limit. Make sure to open up an account and remain logged in. The displayed price will be lower.

Deadwood tobacco also shows that they have a box available. Never ordered from there so I can't comment on their inventory availability or business practices.
Click to expand...
Thanks!
 
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